The Buffalo News’s Mike Harrington posted this in his “look around the East” at the 2024-2025 season’s halfway point, and I am not going to admit that I laughed out loud at the trade he proffers, but I will admit that I guffawed.
The Dylan Cozens situation: The Sabres aren’t shopping a player who’s currently their No. 1 center and it seems crazy they would trade him, given Tage Thompson’s lingering injury. But Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on his podcast that Cozens is a Detroit target and that Buffalo assistant general manager Jason Karmanos has been spotted on the scouting list at Red Wings games. This corner can take that point event further by noting that Detroit pro scout Chris Yzerman (yes, Steve’s brother) has been at recent Sabres games.
But unless the Sabres are getting their hands on young stars like Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider or winger Lucas Raymond – which seems impossible – what are they doing answering the Wings’ calls on Cozens? And don’t the Wings’ sudden winning ways under new coach Todd McLellan cool the need for a big move?
Continued; Seider and Raymond are foundational pieces of the Red Wings’ roster and are untouchable players. There’s no way that the Red Wings would trade one of them for a point-per-every-other-game center who translated one really good season into a $7.1 million-per-season contract.
Hell, there’s no way that Seider or Raymond are moving, period. The Red Wings didn’t make two $8-plus million investments on each player to trade them.
The Red Wings have a bunch of tertiary prospects who might be moveable. Their primary players are not going to be swapped for a reclamation project like Cozens.
This guy must be nuts to even bring up Seider or Raymond in any trade let alone for Cozens. At this point, I’m not sure I’d trade Kasper or Danielson for him. I like our youth movement and wouldn’t rush into making a trade right now especially for someone making 7.1 million and is definitely not a first line center.